Sohman-Sohman

By Paarth Gupta

It was a cold day in the month of January; most people would sit and snuggle up in their blanket, but not me. I couldn’t hold my horses, and was jumping up and down, to talk to my grandparents, who had just arrived. They had come from Shillong and were exhausted, as they had been travelling since early morning. They wanted to call it a day, and were in no mood for a conversation. Next morning, I woke up extra early, and snuck in their room with my sneakers. I was all set to go for a morning walk with them. While I was trying to wake them up, my grandmother said ‘Sohman- Sohman’. I asked her what it meant but she kept repeating it. She got up after a few minutes and we finally went for a refreshing walk. During her stay, she repeated the words, every morning. I too got the hang of it and every morning, since then I made use of the holy words, ‘Sohman–Sohman’.

One fine morning, I woke up and had an epiphany. I finally understood the meaning of the word. It meant “Let the heart sleep”. In Hindi ‘Soh’ means ‘Sleep’ and ‘Man’ means ‘Heart’. I phoned Nans, (I fondly address her with this name) and told her about my realization. We had a good laugh and she said, “You’ve hit the bullseye, but you took forever.” Before disconnecting the call she said, “Gotta go, time for Roti- Shoti”. I am now stuck with ‘Roti- Shoti’. Guess what I did the next day. I took some ‘Sohman-Sohman’ time, to brainstorm about ‘Roti-Shoti’.

By Paarth Gupta